Summary:
Even though the rawdisk vmdk files created by VMware work well on both VMware and VirtualBox, the rawdisk vmdk files created with "createrawvmdk" of VboxManage command don't work on VMware Products.
Detail:
I made a virtual rawdisk of my USB flash drive with the command below:
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename raw_vb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb
Created rawdisk "raw_vb.vmdk" works well on VBox, but doesn't works on VMware Server 1.0.8 and VMware Player 2.5.1 (also 2.5.0).
In raw_vb.vmdk, I can see these following lines are included:
# Extent description
RW 3940479 FLAT "/dev/sdb"
Then, I made another virtual rawdisk of my flash with VMware Server 1.0.8. In the created file, I can see these following lines:
# Extent description
RW 3940479 FLAT "/dev/sdb" 0
This virtual rawdisk works perfectly on both VMware products and VirtualBox.
The difference between VBox's and VMware's rawdisk is only the last "0" in "Extent description". (yes, it's true that there are other differences, but they didn't make any BIG effects in virtual machine's behaviour)
I will try to attach actual vmdk files :)
